Take one free Donor rolling shell, delivered to my mate George's place for storage a while ago courtesy of a flame spitting Volvo V70 T5, then to mine more recently my my mate George and his Focus TDCi and an A-frame :eek

this was back at the start of September.

Apparently the HG or bottom end has gone on this engine, not that it matters, as I have my RFS lump to drop in.

Obviously will clean the bay, maybe a lick of paint if required.

Made a start on getting the silver shell ready yesterday in between helping my mate Richard (Spannerman) change the clutch on a Mk7 Transit crewcab tipper twinwheel 100 PS.

Previous owner had somehow managed to break the rear screen, I can only imagine in attempting to remove the rear spoiler :wacko:

less of the street diamonds to hurt myself on! and a pile of trim bits...

from pulling out the seats dash heater box, to get at the carpet which was torn and flthy....

and to get at the heater matrix which was donald ducked.

then this morning Helped Rich sort his garage out and move stuff around, and got the donor in the dry ready to crack on.

Later on today after lunch and the F1 GP, thought I may as well get more done and start tearing the black bent car apart, this one similarly had the street diamonds scattered everywhere and a pretty damp carpet, but most importantly it was in once piece, the heater matrix in this car is under a year old as well, 2 hours later and all the seats carpet dash and heater box is out.

Jetwashed the carpet off in the back yard and put it on the workshop roof to dry out, is now hanging over the bannisters waiting for the bath to be free....

Didn't do anything Monday night after work, faffed about for an hour last night, front bumper was half off as can be seen in previous pics, but as usual the cage nut things were seized across the bottom lip, so had to take the angle grinder up.

Whilst I was fiddling at the front I took the slam panel off and unplugged the engine loom and drained the PAS res, wont take long at all now to get it out as there's no exhaust or coolant pipes left, just shafts and 3 bolts!!

Also swapped the wheels that Adam had put on to move the car as it came without any, he'll need them back soon as they're his winter tyres for his 406 Bus, comedy size difference, 65 to 55 profile!!

Oh and 3 days on the carpet is still hanging up in the house still damp in places! so interior progress is a bit slow still, but hope to get to a scrappy later on today and get some sound deadening as I don't work on Wednesday

Carpet finally dry, so dysoned it.

Popped down the sound deadening I alleviated from a ZX in Harry bucklands on Wednesday.

Carpet in

Fitted my shiny heater matrix into the heater box.

Then fitted heater box in the car, this one is so much easier than the 306 as there's a plastic plate and a foam gasket that sits over the pipes, then the pipes poke through the bulkhead and another rubber gasket and a steel plate is screwed down on the top, no faffing and cursing for ages trying to squeeze the grommit in place!

Two nuts on studs with fibre washers on the engine side of the bulkhead and a bolt to a bracket on the exhaust tunnel and that's it, wiring sits in a channel and screwed onto a few tabs across the top.

underside of the dash (which weighs bugger all) steel parts on the left are for the fuse box drivers side air ducting and general stiffness, on the right side is for the glovebox with an additional piece across the bottom, couple of in built ducts in the middle and brackets for the heater controls.

All done for the evening, no bad for 2 hours work

one of the other bits I got from the scrapyard was a two speed relayed fan control loom from a 1.9 N-A diesel ZX, as standard the 16v has a single speed single fan, the diesel has a single two speed fan as well but in a double cowling, the TD uses twin fans, a nicely self contained loom, I've used one of these on my 205 now, plugged straight in, just needed to splice in the fan connector

You sir either live for the 6 or have a mental retardation to still be repairing this!

The best engine in the world is the vagina, it takes any size piston, its self lubricating, starts with 1 finger, and every 4 weeks does its own oil change. It's just a pity the management system is so fecking temperamental.

Spent most of the day yesterday (8th sept) at Castle Come watching now not to go around a track fast

My mate Richard (spannerman) has said that I should get the interior done first, then body then mechanicals afterwards, that way nothing will be left when it finally gets on the road.

After taking the front interior apart in fairly swift time, I thought I'd crack on with the rear and get that swapped over today, or at least it all removed ready, crikey what a difference, there's so many bloody screws its not surprising it feels so much different to a 306, took me an hour and a half to get all the trim off, seats were already out!

The bag on the light cluster is half full of all the screws that hold everything down from the B-pillars back.

A big box of trim panels! Going to grab some autoglym engine and machine cleaner and go over the plastics.

This little piece that sits under the rear seats you don't get on lower spec ZX's.

ot some Autoglym engine&machine cleaner and washed the interior plastics, then had a look at how to get the sunroof cover off, as its broken on the donor, looked to be easier to take the roof lining down to do this so remove all 4 grab handles, roof lining is only stuck across the very rear edge with a tiny bead of sealant type stuff, the rest is velcro'd in place!

Only comes out through the boot if you want to keep it in one piece, then I had a look up at the mechanism, AHA!!! that'll be why you don't see any ZX's with rusty roofs like you do 306's, clever buggers at Citroen used a plastic frame and bolted it not like Peugeot that spot welded the sunroof frame up....

sod all progress the last week as my mate Rich is having some building work done, and they found how the garage was getting its electrickery, the garage is across the lane with some armoured cable between two posts and into the shed at the end of his back yard, we found the cable simply goes into a junction box as you'd find for a lighting circuit : then carries on to the house another 30 feet or so in some standard 2.5mm2 cable spurred off a socket next to the boiler!! :wacko:

given the roof is off the shed and the wiring exposed Rich doesn't want to leave the power on whilst he's not there in case it trips, he'll have a defrosted freezer and dead fishies!

Dan (DCC) popped up yesterday to have a fudged locking wheelbolt sorted on his C2, and dropped these off

A bit more progress finally! (19th sept)

Rich managed to get the wiring sorted so its safe again, and I sorted the Strut swap to complete his PAS conversion on his 1.5 diesel 106 runabout as he's injured his arm, then after a very late lunch did some work in the garage.

Continuing with the bodywork+interior, unplugged the tailgate which is a doddle as the wiring just sits under the seal and goes into the car through decent sized holes behind the rear light clusters.

Pop the struts off, Knock/pull the hinge pins out as an able assistant (my brother Osian) holds on to the tailgate.

Pulled down the headlining,

undid two plugs and 8 nuts, and out the sunroof mechanism came.

Naughty thoughts of leaving the bugger off :

Undid the 4 13mm bolts in the boot for the bumper, cut off the two 10mm's underneath, caged nuts, say no more! A good yank and off it came.

Gave this a little prod, and it fell off :

29th september

Got my brother to give me a hand fitting the sunroof mechanism and vacuum a few bits.

Stuck the strengthening piece back down onto the headlining, then lifted it up into place.

Went to remove the seatbelt clasps that sit under the seat seat.

OH COCK.

so I just carried on with fitting the rest of the trim, dozens of different bloody screw types! nightmare trying to remember where they all go

It's a bit crusty up front, thankfully not the body, 16mm socket just slipped straight around the balljoint pinch bolt :eek

not to worry, as the stuff on the other car was painted when I had it apart last time.

Today's progress (30th sept)

Seeing as I wont be using this lot and it was looking to want to put up a fight, I did it the easy way, 4 bolts two nuts each side, chop the brake lines as they looked grotty as hell and unplug the ABS Leads.

Removed the alternator and unbolted the AUX bracket from the block, remove the two nuts from the hard pipe bracket on the bellhousing.

Drained the oil and whipped the shafts out, history of the engine is unknown, other than the shell has 120k on it, I think its safe to assume the HG had gone!

Sling a Towrope around the engine+box, take up the slack with the trusty manual engine crane, remove the last nut from the transmission end...

Jack the car up slightly, remove axle stands, and drop the car down.

SO much easier than trying to wind that crane up and down!

Pull the engine out and push the car back into the garage on the jack.

One emptier engine bay.

Going to extend these cables and relocate them across the top of the bulkhead, as they run across the bulkhead stiffener along with the 3 brake pipes, having seen how hot the RFS exhaust manifold gets when I was down at Alvin Powells with Dan and Sandy for Mapping in his 205,and having the wiring loom grommet melt and smoke away, I think it'll be a wise move to replicate the 306 here!

Having thought that'll do for today, went back to the house for some coffee and late lunch, got a call from Dan (DCC) asking where I was, as he was outside :

He had a present for me

Pete (MadScientist) had mentioned a few weeks ago that he had a Satchel DCOE pattern inlet that he wasn't using due to the angle not suiting a 205, however as the ZX is somewhat longer in the bonnet department may be of use, conveniently Pete was in Cardiff on a Stag weekend and Dan was passing and picked the inlet up from Pete who had kindly bought it along as Dan now works down west Wales he hadn't had a chance to pop up for a few weeks, and given it was raining today wasn't going to work on his 205.

Slung a couple of bolts in quickly and popped it in place on the old Black car.

looks great....

AH.....

DOH! the bonnet does close if I slacken the nuts and let the manifold tilt downards a little, but no chance of getting a filter on

Tons of space around them though, and I think this might work in a 306.

HMMMM

Now then, this is what me and my brother have been up to this evening, he was piloting the computer, I did the measuring.

That's a gti6 inlet cup open btw, trumpets still intact.

Bonnet angle hasn't been measured yet, but we know the trumpets touch at the moment.

rough guesstimate so far is that the flange needs to be at about 155mm, its currently at 95mm.

Valve to head flange short side is roughly 70mm, inlet is roughly 300mm total.

got the scrubbing brushed Autoglym engine+machine cleaner, and brake cleaner out this morning, but to no avail on the drivers side wheelarch, I don't know if its some feeble attempt at protecting the paint or just a massive buildup of oil and general s*ite, but it was Black, and its a silver car.

Black arches are a massive pet hate of mine on many builds, why go to all the effort of paining the body a lovely colour, then making the arches look like you couldn't give a toss and make the whole build look lazy, I'd much rather a body colour clean arch (or white even)

So I took a wire brush attachment in a drill and gently went at it to remove the blackness, and any loose surface rust on some sections, treated said rust areas with some Bilt Hamber product, that's the light blue areas.

I'd love to strip the whole underneath down, but I haven't the time or money so its going to be the areas that need attention only.

Popped back up to the garage, laid some primer in the arches, ran out, gave upon that.

Decided to strip the old engine down ot make it easier to move around, spent a while cursing whichever pug/citroen designer used T30 bolts on the front of the intake manifold, as half of them were fudged from rust, not to worry though as 10 and 11mm 12 point sockets hammered on worked a treat.

Found a nice remanufactured starter motor.

and a comedy speedo cable pin location.

as well as lots of oily rusty grubbyness, and some comedy cooling pipework.

Been trying to get hold of the brake pipes and bulkhead heatshield and not feeling great for a while, motivation levels almost non-existant.

About a week ago I did some grinding away with the wire brush and applied some rust eater, had a poke a few days later and found a hole crap pic, but its right next to the subframe mounting section, as time is sparse I got some 2mm plate and extended that section down covering the hole, bit tricky and not the best welds, but its on and stuck

then gave it a shot of primer and some crappy white paint I Had lying about.

then dug out the tubing I bought off ebay to sort the engine bay brake pipe re-routing, as well as sort the rotten bits.

I quite enjoy doing this actually, I'd love some more tooling to make it easier as its very satisfying getting it looking as it should from the factory, nearly.

will do more tomorrow hopefully as Dan (chipstick) has posted me a load of bits which should be at work by now.

25th october

Done a bit more!! Dan's parcel had indeed arrived, thanks Dan

Stuck the heatshield in place to see what I needed to do to get it secured.

the lower stud is already there and secures the upper exhaust tunnel heatshield, the two holes further to the right on the strengthening section are already there, leaving only one fresh hole to be drilled! I have a rivnut Gun and some Stainless steel caphead screws, the upper most stud is already present.

onto the brake lines, and here's the DOH! moment, I couldn't figure out how they were meant to sit, then it dawned on me that Dan's xsara must have been a fairly early car prior to PSA deciding top shift the brake lines up the bulkhead!

Still, there were a few unions and clips I can re-use, so cracked on with a brake line, now I remember why I wanted to buy a Decent Sykes-Pickavant flaring tool, you have to wind this thing pretty tight for Copper-Nickel tube to stay put as you wind the die down!

Mostly bent up and placed in the clips to get an idea of where to route it.

Also fitted the Servo vacuum hose Dan sent and bent the original pipes up roughly where I will stick the new ones

31st Oct

Got more done today, drilled the two holes to 9mm and added the third one, popped some rivnuts in.

Then started the faffage with the brake pipes, found my el-cheapo flaring tool really doesn't work on Copper-nickel tubing so gave up on that and used my Copper pipe, I can't afford a proper Sykes tool at the moment but the most awkward pipe to replace I have managed to sort in copper-nickel so if I really want to I can do the rest again at a later date.

Popped a pair of 7mm holes in the scuttle and added some clips.

Heatshield in place, looking good

Got the heater pipes clipped in, what a doddle with no engine in the way :

Bolted the heatshield down properly, and stripped some ancillaries off the old lump.

Compomotive TH, 8x15 ET0, so not sure if they'll fit under the 205's arches, but there's this very useful web page here called Will they fit.com and it looks like there's a slim chance, the ZX arches are a little roomier though

What type of flares does the ZX use? Bubble? I tried to make a beam brake line in Kunifer when I was at home. I found it worked quite easily but half the time it would favour one side, plus it was quite difficult to make the bubble flare. Hand held pipe bender worked a treat though.

Get used to seeing the yellow one !!!
Team 330™
Team "no front end or engine"
Team "LIMITED EDITION" I live for the 306 sticker
Team 0-60 in 6.44 & standing qtr in 14.808 @ 94.55mph all with std engine
203bhp Corolla T-Sport daily driver stealthier than Kwai Chang Caine

Cu-Ni has a higher burst pressure, stiffer so trickier to bend and flare but make nice straight lines.

I never took my driving test till 22, never needed to as I lived in Cardiff and rode my bike everywhere, interest in cars pretty much spiralled from there!

My dad was a mechanical engineer by training but never worked as one but followed his hobby into sound engineering, i.e recording studio.
He always had tools and stuff about and did bits and bobs on his own cars, my Grandad was a Teacher and a very good one, taught me to fix bikes which is where the knowledge to use a spanner comes from.

I've worked in a few bike shops over the years and now work in a cycle hire centre, only got a Qualification in that last year

When I got my first car I started doing work on that myself, getting a Haynes manual and just cracking on with it! Got my 205 at 24 iirc.

I had the great fortune to make friends with a Guy ten doors down here in Cwmcarn who's been a mechanic since leaving school at 15, think I met him when mum moved here about 6 years ago, always doing jobs on the side at home as he had a garage and a set of tools additionally to his toolbox at work, I'd hang around in the garage and help out and he'd show me how to do stuff.

Back in 2008 we were both out of work at the same time and he got me me some work helping out in a haulage garage in Cwmbran, that's where my only professional experience came from, about a year in total there, I learnt a s**tload about how trucks work, I hadn't a clue what a brake chamber was before then!

Working there I did anything and everything from oil changes on cars to 6 cylinder head gaskets on Renault and Scania 14 litre straight sixes (individual heads, 6 bolts, two different sizes, two different torque settings, two angle settings 36 times over!)
Diff swaps that need a forcklift truck to lift the diff, clutches and allsorts.

So in reality I haven't worked on cars that much, but as something I'm interested in I can take up and learn new stuff very easily.
Maybe part of my Dyslexia, I was never certified so to speak so never got any help at school, still affects how I work these days, might be mild Aspergers, I dunno!

Same flares as a 306, its not a full bubble though, you should use the flat side not countersunk one as the unions aren't countersunk

Aye I figured as much from watching youtube videos that it used the flat side, it just kept making wonky unions. Oh well, have to keep trying again though or perhaps plump up the money for a top Sykes tool given I know it'll get mileage.

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